495

There's an old song, 99 bottles of beer on the wall. You probably know it. I've been on a couple bus trips where it was sung. Forgive me, I was young then. Now, if I was that bus driver I'd be homicidal if that song started. Then again, I know almost nothing of modern music. There could well be some dreadful rap noise that is in vogue. That would be much worse.

But there is no beer here. Well, in fact that's not quite true at the moment. I've got a couple cans in the fridge, but that's a pretty rare thing. Sometimes beer is nice on a hot summer day, while tending the barbecue doing a big steak.

What there is, is wine. Wine making season just finished the other day. I did a bit of research. I've done 115 kits over the exactly 20 years since I started. That's 3335 bottles, assuming 29 bottles per kit, which is normal, plus getting a half bottle or so as a post bottling 'taster'. I figure we've spent about $10K or so buying the wine kits. Not an expensive hobby at all, especially if you consider that buying that much wine from the liquor store would probably cost at least $40K, with most of it being tax wasted by various versions of Conservative governments. Don't even think about what it would cost buying that much wine at a restaurant.

This photo has nothing whatever to do with this post. Facebook takes the first photo and uses that, and I didn't want the wine photo to be first. This is from a Zeller road trip last summer, going past Carmangay.

There are now 495 bottles of my wine resting on the racks downstairs. 

Don't forget, there is a fierce guard kitty who has been trained to savage and eat anyone breaking into the house. As a side note, she was off to the vet yesterday to make sure her teeth were in top condition for such a savaging, and getting a paw-dicure is part of the deal. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

That is somewhere between a 3 and 5 year supply of wine, depending on exactly how you do the math, and how much we give away. Our financial advisor likes to schedule a late fall meeting to review account performance, plan any changes needed for balance or risk tolerance, and start to get a grip on tax planning for the next fiscal year. It's just coincidence that a case of wine shows up for that meeting.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Plus a serendipity from the Birds of Prey sanctuary near Coaldale.

Flower

Peony (In an aside, I'm kind of surprised that hardly anyone has looked at the post of wet peonies from yesterday, if I am to believe the readership stats.)

Landscape

Film (6x9 Ektar 100)

courtesy Green Fools. Clowns playing a ball hiding and guessing game.